Is the ‘Alt-Right’ Reaching Out to Jews — and Why?
The term “alt-right” is everywhere right now. Donald Trump has been tied to it. Hillary Clinton made a speech about it. On August 25, when Clinton gave her speech, the phrase “altrightmeans” trended on Twitter all day, precisely because most people didn’t know how to complete that sentence. Turns out, the “alt-right” is a loose affiliation of racists and others haters including, but not limited to, white supremacists and anti-Semites.
You’d think such people would not want Jews around.
You’d be wrong.
The so-called “alt-right” is a sophisticated political movement, a far cry from the clumsy, costumed Ku Klux Klan of yesteryear.
The very fact that Clinton had to make such a speech shows how effective they can be, said Peter Montgomery, who monitors right-wing politics at People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group.
Some of its leaders are even making tactical, token overtures to the groups that white supremacists have hated for so long: Jews, people in the LGBT community and even people of color.
“You have parts of this movement that are rabidly anti-Semitic, fringe-y, Hitlerian,” Montgomery said. “And others are using it to build political power.” Different leaders have different end games, he said. Some, for example, are separatists who want to carve up the United States and assign different groups to different territories. But in the meantime, they are all working to take advantage of Trump’s candidacy. His attacks on political correctness, immigrants and the media have given them permission to build their own organizations.
It is a fractious movement, to be sure. It flows from the offices of Washington think tanks and racist internet forums. But its various groups, publications, websites and conferences have some things in common..
The movement is very media-savvy, and that’s a big strength, said Heidi Beirich, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“They’re making slick cartoons and videos,” she said. “They’re pushing memes. They’re trolling twitter. They’re doing things these other folks [in politics] know how to do.”
The basic tenets combine white supremacy and white victimhood. In the former category fall bloggers like Steve Sailer, who lends the “alt-right” a pseudoscientific vibe with “human biodiversity,” a benign-sounding neologism that uses the language of genetics to explain perceived racial differences. Likewise, the anti-establishment conservative movement adopted the epithet “cuckservative” to call into question the toughness or strength of any conservative who makes concessions to the left.
At the same time, members and fellow travelers of the movement consider whites to be under attack and even facing extinction in an ongoing “white genocide,” which refers to the supposed conspiracy to destroy the white race through multiculturalism,.
